Why Must Logic Take Care of Itself?

Vojtěch Kolman

Wittgenstein’s thesis that „logic must take care of itself“ is examined against the background of his philosophical methods. A special focus is put on the method of „perspicuous representation“, a particular goal of the study being to get such a representation of the whole of Wittgenstein’s philosophy in its continuous development from the study of the logical form of representation to the plurality of forms of life. The core of the article consists in a discussion of three principles of pure reason – the law of identity, the law of induction, and the law of contradiction – from a Wittgensteinian point of view. The final section posits Wittgenstein’s above-quoted thesis and his whole philosophy within a broader perspective of the philosophical trends that had shaped it, with a particular stress on the idealism of Immanuel Kant and the pragmatism of William James.